Copenhagen 2007 Day Three

Posted on Saturday, June 30, 2007 by Rob

Words by Ryan Clements
Photos and Captions by Rob Meronek

The City of Copenhagen

This is only my third trip to Europe, so I’m still thoroughly excited about being here. Flying across the Atlantic isn’t even that big of a deal. Hell, from Newark it’s only an eight-hour flight, which is about three hours farther than from Tampa to LA.

The seven-hour flight from Newark is “overnight” and you arrive at Copenhagen at 7:30am, but to the human body accustomed to EST, that’s about 1am. So basically, if you got a couple of hours of sleep on the plane, it’s like waking up really really early.

Most of Wednesday we chilled, picked people up from the airport, etc. The weather was pretty crappy…cold and raining, so that kept us indoors. By Thursday the rain had stopped, so we got to explore the city a bit and roll around on our skateboards. Actually, Thursday night was the only night that there wasn’t a formal party planned, so we chilled at the local pub and had some draughts amongst friends.

Friday – Practice, Bowl Jam, and Party #1

Friday was spent at Copenhagen Skatepark, checking in the pros and getting settled and comfortable with the scene. Everyone in Copenhagen is so damn friendly and appreciative…it’s truly a pleasure being here.

Later in the afternoon we hosted the local Bowl Jam. There’s a proper bowl at the Skatepark and anyone could enter – ams vs. pros vs. random dudes that were just having a good time. We took the 20-some entrants and gave them two, 45-second runs each. From there we took the top five into a 15-minute Jam.

The locals had the Bowl wired, with the likes of Thomas Kring and Jurgen Horrwarth dominating, but there was no beating Michael Jensen and his uncanny ability to throw down variation of bs noseblunts on command, nearly every single try. There were many, but his bangers were the kickflip bs noseblunt revert and kickflip bs tailslide revert. Damn. And then after the Jam was over he nailed a 360 flip blunt to fakie.

From Copenhagen Skatepark we headed over to the ledges across the street from our hotel and were treated to free beer and BBQ. Unfortunately the weather didn’t hold out and the Best Trick was rained out. The sun doesn’t set here until like 10pm, so before you knew it we were back at the After-Party at the Fox Hotel. The lobby turned into a full-on rager and the place was banging. The next morning the whole hotel still smelled like a stale, gross, European cigarette!

Adam Taylor from Florida landed in 11th in the Bowl Jam. This is a Rob Meronek approved meron grab

What the hell is going on with this dude's head? Some kind of viking mullet or something

The Euro crowd

Who dat? This is an alley oop nose grab over the hip. Looks like the Euro Chris Jata

There are people everywhere rocking that weird monkey style hat. Apparently it has something to do with college. I guess that makes it a thinking cap

One second after this photo was snapped, this dude was leaving an impression of his face on the flat bottom. This was the worst full committed hang up slam I've ever seen. Right after that he got up and repeated the pile up to the face before finally making it. I thought we were going to have to draw a chalk outline of his body on the flat

I heard the drinking age here is 15. 15? Why even have a drinking age? David Gravette is legal and skated his second run with a nice toasty warm Euro beer

This is Michael Jensen. He kickflipped into this backside tailslide

Click to enlarge. Right after Michael Jensen did this kickflip backside nosepick, he did kickflip backside noseblunt revert. Wow

Click to enlarge. Michael Jensen skating the bowl like it's a ledge - kickflip backside tailslide revert

Another banging meal. Got some great spaghetti from some place down the road from the Skatepark

I'm in Rune's car right now. All the cars have these little timer clock things on them. When you park, you set the time you parked on the clock to let the meter maid know if you've gone over the time limit or not. It's sort of like the honor system of parking meters

They're playing Baker 3 in the hotel lounge and since I've seen it about 100 times, I got all eyes on that Euro chick right there. It's about 9pm right now and I'm sitting in here by myself

The Best Trick Contest at the ledges turned into a big chill fest because it rained. I don't think anyone was complaining. I got a handful of toasty warm beer and some Zippo style smokes. That's DJ Wade. His records are still stuck in Customs. I bet they're rocking out to them right this second

That's Joe Hammeke. He shoots photos for Thrasher. Next to him is my new friend Xpzweqzxltezq, or something like that. You know how when someone introduces themselves to you and you repeat their name to get it right? Yeah, I stopped doing that because when I repeat someone's name here I'm sure I sound like your average retarded American

That's a G-Bag converted to a vest. Hell yeah

The BBQ bike was at the ledge spot in full effect. Not sure what that meat is, but I'll definitely take a plate of Anika off the grill

If they're anything like me and my simplified assumptions about an entire country based on an experience with one person, they probably think everyone in America likes to take foot fetish photos

The driver of the BBQ bike also has a G-Bag vest

Once I find a place with a decent meal, I stick with it. This is triple chicken pasta dinner with Neal Hendrix and Paul Zitzer. We had a solid hour of sketchy skateboard industry crap talking. I always enjoy those stories

An hour or so later, I return to the empty hotel lobby and there's a raging party going on. It's the Contest After-Party. Oh hell yeah

It was war trying to get a beer. I don't think they were prepared for this crowd. That's Paul Shier stoked to finally make it to the counter

Double Fister Zitzer

I think this is about the fifth time I've done the drunk fan out to Chico Brenes

The hotel party got so packed they had to lock people out for a while

Beers were 40 kroners - about eight bucks. By the time Schaefer and I made it to the bar, we went ahead and just split a case of beer. We didn't even make it five feet from the counter before the case was empty

I'll take your picture if you take my picture

I woke up with a pocket full of schrapnel. They love their coins here

Copenhagen 2007 Day Three

Posted on Saturday, June 30, 2007 by Rob

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